"Especially as he seemed to be entirely restored to health. What was it that you gave him to take, in heaven's name?"
"Mon Dieu! just plain chartreuse—an excellent, strengthening liqueur. But it seems that he dined with two friends, that he did not spare himself, that the champagne made him ill, and——"
"Well, he's dead; we must make the best of it. But it is doubly unfortunate for me. I lose a great fortune, a title, which I had in my grasp."
"And then I—I also lose—I lose—the husband with whom I broke off relations—in order to become a countess."
"True—you lose both. You are almost thrice a widow."
"And yet, it seems to me that I was excusable for being blinded for a moment by ambition. Mon Dieu! who in this world has not been? We all want to raise ourselves."
"That is the first thing to which we aspire when we are born."
"Monsieur Cherami, are you still on friendly terms with Gustave?"
"With Gustave? Oh! ours is a friendship for life and death; there will never be any break in our friendship. He's a man for whom I would throw myself into the fire."